


Capital-D Date

by LerxstInSpace



Series: Contingency Plan-verse [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Double Dating, Established Relationship, First Dates, M/M, POV Shiro (Voltron), Past Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Past Curtis/Adam (Voltron), Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 07:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18751792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LerxstInSpace/pseuds/LerxstInSpace
Summary: For the first few months after the war they spend most of their together-time in one of their dorm rooms or the other, on the couch, with takeout and quiet conversation because neither one of them has the energy to spend a whole evening out.Their first actual dress-up-nice capital-D Date doesn’t happen until a few days into the new year.





	Capital-D Date

**Author's Note:**

> O hai, just powersliding into "First Date" day at the last possible second.
> 
> This one is part of the Contingency Plan 'verse and there are minor references to previous events in that timeline, but nothing major.

It’s not like Shiro and Curtis haven’t gone out together since they’ve been back on Earth. They’ve gone out for quick casual dinners at the kind of restaurant that serves breakfast 24/7, and they went to that Halloween party the MFE pilots threw a couple of weeks after they all came home, and they had that quiet little Christmas dinner with the Paladins. But for the first few months after the war they spend most of their together-time in one of their dorm rooms or the other, on the couch, with takeout and quiet conversation because neither one of them has the energy to spend a whole evening out.

 

Their first actual dress-up-nice capital-D _Date_ doesn’t happen until a few days into the new year. By then the nice restaurants are starting to open up again and new movies are starting to come out again and the game rooms and hoverkart tracks and stuff are starting to make a comeback, so there are actually places to go and things to do now.

 

One of the restaurants that’s open again is Shiro’s favorite ramen joint, and not a moment too soon. He’s been craving spicy tonkotsu ramen for ages--since before Kerberos in fact, since he found out the hard way that spicy food didn’t play nice with the meds he doesn’t need anymore. Curtis is totally on board with this. He’s never had a proper bowl of ramen, which kind of comes as a surprise.

 

In the video he left them, Adam specifically told Curtis to let Shiro take him out for ramen sometime. Which struck them both as a little strange--as long as Adam and Curtis had been together, Shiro figured surely they would have done that at some point. But they never did. Curtis isn’t sure but he suspects Adam just didn’t feel right bringing him to Shiro’s favorite restaurant.

 

As for the movie... the new offerings this week don’t pique Shiro’s interest, and Curtis isn’t all that into them either. There’s a romcom and some talky drama stuff they both roll their eyes and make gagging noises at the listings for. There are some cartoons, and Shiro is not really okay with the idea of potentially sharing the theater with a bunch of kids. They haven’t gotten too far into the physical stuff yet, but they’re far enough that a couple of hours together in a dark room carries a non-zero chance of some light making out. There’s an old action flick they both like, one with a generous side order of humor to go with its main course of explosions, and that looks like a winner.

 

They decide on the night before one of those rare and wonderful days when their schedules line up to give them both the next day off, so they can stay out as late as they want without having to worry about getting up early the next morning.

 

The morning after they make that decision, Shiro stands in front of his nearly-empty closet and realizes he has absolutely nothing that’s fit to wear on a capital-D Date.

 

He has his uniforms, and he has his workout clothes, and he has the tank tops and T-shirts and shorts and sweatpants he putters around the dorm and sleeps in, and he’s got a couple of slightly more presentable T-shirts and a couple pairs of secondhand jeans (one with a little hole in the knee) and that’s about it. His footwear situation is dire--uniform boots and running shoes. In his defense, clothes shopping hasn’t exactly been a priority since he’s been back on Earth, but... _oof._

 

Luckily, the clothing stores are also starting to recover. He finds a slightly oversized dark jacket to cover his built-in night lights so he doesn’t disrupt the movie for everyone else. He gets a couple of nice button-down shirts and gets them altered to fit his shoulder, and a couple pairs of nice dark jeans, and a pair of casual but not too casual shoes.

 

The drugstore doesn’t have his preferred brand of aftershave back in yet, but he finds something that smells nice enough for now. Curtis is almost out of his cedar-and-sandalwood stuff--he had a nearly-full bottle of it with him in his gym bag on the day of the invasion, the online place he got it from isn’t back in business yet and it’s uncertain if it ever will be, and even watering it down and using it as sparingly as possible can’t stretch it out forever. Shiro gives everything in stock a sniff to see if they have anything that’s even close and comes up empty.

 

God, this all feels so fucking weird.

 

Not bad-weird, but still weird. It’s been years, literally _years_ since he’s been on an actual date. Even longer since he’s been on a first date. It’s a small consolation that it’s been a few years for Curtis too, but still... it just feels weird.

 

* * *

 

By the time the actual day comes around, it doesn’t feel quite so weird anymore.

 

Of course they’ve spent evenings in each others’ rooms in the days leading up to the date, they even went to the Waffle House for dinner the night before, but this is different. This is an actual capital-D _Date._ And now, with just a few short hours until Shiro is supposed to knock on Curtis’ door to collect him for it, it doesn’t feel weird at all anymore. It’s exciting. And, if Shiro is being honest, a little scary. But scary in the fun way, like a roller coaster or a Halloween haunted house.

 

The last few months have been exhausting. Even with the war over there’s still a lot of cleanup to deal with, and even more emotional fallout from everything that’s happened and everyone they’ve lost. The _Atlas_ hasn’t been back out into space since then, not yet, but it’s still been an ordeal and it takes a heavy toll. Usually by the time he gets off work, it’s all Shiro can do to put on his comfy clothes and eat an actual meal before he goes to bed or passes out quietly on the couch, whichever comes first.

 

But tonight, he’s feeling pretty good.

 

He and Curtis finish their shift, and he drives them both back to the dorm. They part ways at the elevator for now--Curtis lives on the first floor, Shiro lives on the third.

 

“See you in a little bit,” Curtis says with a smile and a pat on his shoulder, and Shiro grins and hits the call panel.

 

He manages to convince himself that there’s plenty of time and it’s really not necessary to run down the hall from the elevator to his room, but just barely.

 

He shuts his door and leaves a trail of uniform bits all the way to the bathroom. He showers and combs his hair and brushes his teeth. He doesn’t need to shave again, but he does dab on a little of the aftershave he got the other day. No, it’s not quite the same as his old usual stuff, but it’ll do for now.

 

He can’t decide whether to wear his new purple shirt or his new black shirt, and after way too much overthinking he decides on the purple one. He puts on his new jeans and shoes and jacket. He grabs his wallet and his keys and--

 

\--and how the hell is there still almost a whole hour before he’s supposed to pick Curtis up!?

 

Hmm. Well, he did leave a bit of a mess coming in, maybe he should pick that up before he leaves. Just in case Curtis ends up coming back up here with him. That’s not the plan for the evening, but... well, plans can change.

 

He gathers up the uniform bits and hangs them up neatly, tosses his discarded socks and underwear into the laundry basket, and puts his boots back where they belong, at the end of the neat row of shoes next to his bed.

 

He checks the time. This cleanup detail has taken all of five minutes.

 

Okay. All right. That’s fine. He’s a grown-up. Surely he can keep himself occupied for an hour. He can just sit and watch some TV or play with some of those little games Curtis dumped onto his phone for a little while. No problem.

 

Shiro flops down on the couch, turns on the TV, and takes out his phone. He waters his little pot of virtual succulents. He tosses a handful of food into his virtual koi pond. He checks his little virtual yard to see if any new cats have come to visit.

 

He checks the time again.

 

Ah, fuck it.

 

He gives up and sends Curtis a text: _I know it’s rly early but I’ve kinda got ants in my pants, ok if I come over and hang out while you’re getting ready?_

 

Curtis doesn’t answer. Maybe he’s in the shower (and that’s a mental image Shiro knows he shouldn’t dwell on right now, but will definitely dwell on later).

 

But then there’s a knock on Shiro’s door, and he opens it to find Curtis standing there in a light blue dress shirt and nice jeans and new cowboy boots, smelling faintly of cedar and sandalwood, hands in his pockets and a sheepish little smile on his face.

 

“I was, uh...” He scratches at the back of his head and laughs softly. Is he blushing? It’s hard to tell, but his cheeks and ears definitely look a little purple. “I was just about to ask you the same thing?”

 

* * *

 

Maybe it’s a good thing they went out a little early--they get to the ramen bar just in time to beat the dinner rush and snag that coveted booth in the back corner of the place.

 

Curtis eyes the default setup as they settle in--napkin, spoon, and chopsticks. “Oh... I’ve never, um...” He picks up the chopsticks in their little paper sleeve and winces. “This is embarrassing, but I might need a fork.”

 

_Yes!_

 

“Don’t worry. I’ll show you how.” Shiro was hoping he’d have to instruct Curtis in proper chopstick technique. He had to do it for Adam and he remembers how much fun that was, especially since this particular restaurant has an off-menu specialty dish for that exact purpose. Or at least they _had_ one, hopefully they still do.

 

Well, only one way to find out. He flags the waitress down and orders their drinks. “Do you still do the training bowl?” he asks, and the waitress laughs and nods.

 

“Coming right up,” she says, and she goes off to fetch their stuff.

 

Curtis looks at him like he has no idea what the hell is going on or what he’s gotten himself into. “What’s the training bowl?”

 

“You’ll see.”

 

A minute later the waitress comes back to the table with their drinks, plus two pairs of brightly colored plastic chopsticks and two small bowls. One bowl is empty. The other is filled with rubber bands topped with an assortment of little food-shaped erasers. Curtis bursts into helpless laughter and drops his head onto Shiro’s shoulder, and Shiro is loving every second of it.

 

“Okay,” he says when Curtis gets hold of himself. “Give me your hand. You hold the bottom one like this, and...”

 

Curtis watches as Shiro gently tucks the plastic chopsticks into his hand and positions his fingers to hold them, and if Shiro spends a little more time tweaking his grip than absolutely necessary Curtis sure isn’t calling him out on it. But eventually he has to let go to pick up his own plastic chopsticks and demonstrate.

 

Truth be told, Shiro was a little worried about this--he hasn’t tried eating with chopsticks since he got his new arm, he still doesn’t know the full extent of its strength, and he’s a little paranoid about accidentally breaking stuff with it. But so far, everything seems to be working okay. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask Pidge if she can hook him up with some kind of limiter function, though. For this reason and also for reasons that have nothing to do with chopsticks. For reasons that... well, just thinking about those reasons right now is making Shiro blush a little.

 

So instead of thinking about those reasons, he concentrates on the task at hand. He picks up an eraser shaped like half of a tiny boiled egg and drops it in the empty bowl. “See? Just like that.”

 

Curtis pokes his chopsticks into the bowl, catches a little sushi roll-shaped eraser between them, and lifts it all of an inch before his chopsticks go out of whack and it falls back into the bowl. “Whoops...”

 

“It’s okay. Here, look...” Shiro demonstrates again.

 

It takes a while for Curtis to get the hang of it. He drops erasers and rubber bands on the table and the floor and his lap, and he laughs when he does, and that just sets Shiro off laughing too. He seems to be having a little difficulty with the idea of keeping the bottom one still until Shiro takes his hand again and makes a small adjustment to his grip, and then it seems to click. He drops a few more erasers and somehow manages to launch one across the table, but most of them make the trip to the target bowl without incident.

 

“Okay,” Curtis says as he rounds up the last couple of rubber bands, picks them up, and drops them into the other bowl. “I think I’m ready for the real thing.”

 

This presents a new set of challenges because again, Curtis has never had real ramen before, just the ten-for-a-buck sodium bomb stuff and the cup stuff, and the list of available toppings looks like it’s making him dizzy. Much of it is familiar enough--green onions, cabbage, corn, soft boiled eggs. Some of it... well, Curtis speaks Japanese well enough to pronounce _kikurage_ like a champ, but he doesn’t know what it actually is.

 

Shiro explains some of the unfamiliar toppings and makes a few suggestions based on what he knows about Curtis’ taste. The chicken broth here is pretty good and so is the chicken chashu that goes with it, but the tonkatsu broth and its accompanying slices of pork could be classified as a religious experience and Shiro insists he try it first. Curtis is also not sure he wants a full serving of kikurage in his ramen, but he’s willing to try a bit out of Shiro’s bowl. Cilantro is a hard no, of course, but he seems _very_ interested in the chili paste. They figure out what they want, and Shiro waves the waitress back over and orders their ramen.

 

Once that’s handled, Curtis pats him on the knee. “Be right back,” he says. He leans over and gives Shiro a little kiss on the cheek, then he slides out of the booth and makes his way to the restroom.

 

It’s the first time Curtis has kissed him in public.

 

They’re still all business in uniform and on duty, and that’s how they plan to keep it, but they’re starting to get bolder with their public displays of affection in their off-duty hours. Shiro doesn’t flinch when Curtis reaches for his hand in an off-base restaurant anymore. Sometimes he even initiates it. He likes to keep Curtis on his left when they’re out like this, to give Curtis his flesh-and-blood hand. He knows Curtis doesn’t mind holding his right, but... well, it just doesn’t feel right to give him a piece of metal to hold, and there’s also that bit of paranoia about the strength of his grip.

 

Yeah. He really needs to talk to Pidge about that limiter.

 

The bell attached to the door rings, and Shiro looks up out of pure reflex. That back corner booth might be cozy but it still has a decent enough view of the door, and Shiro can’t help but laugh a little when he sees who’s coming in--it’s Hunk, and he brought Shay.

 

Shiro doesn’t have to say anything. Just the sight of a waving metal hand floating above the heads of the other patrons tells Hunk all he needs to know. His face lights up and he waves back. “Shiro! Hey!”

 

The ramen bar is not a large restaurant, and quarters are a little close, and neither Hunk nor Shay are small people but they make their way back to the corner booth and Shiro gets up to hug them both (oh good, Hunk _did_ have that gentle conversation with Shay about humans being made of squishier stuff than Balmerans). He slides back into the booth, but Hunk and Shay don’t follow suit, and that’s fine--clearly they’re on a date too, they probably want their privacy.

 

“You here by yourself?” Hunk asks, and that kind of throws Shiro a little.

 

“No, my uh...”  He wasn’t expecting this question, and it’s not that he’s ashamed of the answer or anything, it’s just that he isn’t used to being able to say it out loud to anyone else yet. “My guy’s in the restroom.”

 

Right on cue, Curtis comes out of the men’s room, pauses for a split second as he notices the company at their table, and then breaks out into one of those amazing radiant grins of his. They exchange greetings and hugs, and Curtis slides back into the booth.

 

“Did you ask them to join us?” he asks, and Shiro shakes his head.

 

“I was just about to. How about it?”

 

Hunk and Shay look at each other, and Shiro can’t help but grin a little. He knows what they’re doing. He and Curtis do it all the time, have whole conversations in a glance without saying a single word out loud. “We’d love to,” Shay says, and they slide into the other side of the booth. It’s a bit of a tight fit--again, that back corner booth is cozy and neither Hunk nor Shay are small people--but in a situation like this, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

 

“Oh nice,” Hunk says as he picks up a pair of the plastic chopsticks. “They still do the training bowl. You mind if we--”

 

“I think I’ve got the hang of it,” Curtis says, pushing the bowl of practice “food” across the table. “Go for it.”

 

“Cool, thanks.” Hunk hands Shay the other pair of chopsticks and just as Shiro did for Curtis, he takes her hand and shows her how to use them while they catch up. Shiro wasn’t planning on this turning into a double date and neither was Curtis, but now he’s even more glad they decided to come out a little early. Now they’ve actually got some time to relax and talk face to face.

 

Hunk has been busy as all hell lately--Sam decided he’d had enough of space for a while and given all he’d been through, nobody could blame him, but the _Atlas_ is still going to need a chief engineer. A really good one. Preferably a very patient and kind one who could get through a shift without having two or three Slav-related nervous breakdowns. And Hunk fits that bill to a T. He knows his stuff but the _Atlas_ is a whole new beast for him, and he’s had a lot to learn and not a lot of time to learn it.

 

So it’s nice to see him outside of work for once. And to finally get to know Shay a little better. She has a little trouble with the chopsticks until Hunk gets the brilliant idea to ask the waitress for a pair of the big ones they use in the kitchen, and those work much better. The waitress does a bit of a double-take at Shay, but recovers quickly--people around here have seen a lot of weird stuff since the invasion and a friendly rock lady is probably the _least_ weird thing the waitress has seen in the last few years.

 

Shay is just visiting, at least this time--she has some loose ends she needs to tie up back on her Balmera, and then she’d like to come to Earth for a while. Maybe a long while. The big grin Hunk breaks into when she says that indicates that this arrangement would be fine with him. They’ve already looked into getting her on the _Atlas_ crew, in fact. There might an opening in the galley soon and she’s interested in learning how to cook for...

 

For, uh...

 

Well... if any other alien had so casually referred to squishy carbon-based lifeforms as “meat people” it might have been a little creepy. But when Shay does it, Shiro finds it kind of endearing. Hunk doesn’t react to the term. He must be used to it. Curtis seems mildly weirded out, just for a moment, but he shakes it off and goes along with the conversation as if nothing unusual had happened.

 

* * *

 

The impromptu double date splits back into two single dates after dinner. Hunk and Shay are going to the natural science museum to check out a geology exhibit, and Shiro and Curtis have their movie.

 

When the house lights first go down and the previews start up, Shiro wonders if a couple of hours in a dark room was the best choice for a date when they’re both still coming home from work exhausted more often than not. For the first few minutes, he’s afraid he’s going to end up asleep and possibly drooling on Curtis’ shoulder despite his best efforts and the caffeinated soft drink in the holder on his armrest.

 

But then the previews run their course and the movie proper starts, and Curtis drapes an arm over the back of Shiro’s seat and ever so lightly scritches the back of his neck and... oh. _Oh._

 

No, he’s not going to sleep, not anytime soon. Curtis couldn’t have known that’s one of his sensitive spots--hell, it’s been so long that Shiro barely remembers where his own sensitive spots are until that little touch sends a crackle of electricity down his spine and fills his stomach with something warm and fluttery. He makes a little noise--not much of one, just an inhale that’s a little on the sharp side. Curtis pauses, then relocates his hand to Shiro’s shoulder, but he’s smiling like he just discovered a little piece of hidden treasure. He knows exactly what he’s found, Shiro is certain of that, and he’s filing that information away for future reference.

 

This, already, and the movie’s barely started. This is going to be fun.

 

This movie is heavy on the space stuff, and Shiro was concerned that a movie with a lot of space stuff in it might drag up some unpleasant memories for both of them. But it has a happy ending, and it’s an _old_ space stuff movie and it’s cute to see the kind of space stuff people dreamed up back when they hadn’t even set foot on Mars yet.

 

It’s also funny as hell and the edited-for-TV version tends to cut out one of the best scenes--an attempted mugging that goes hilariously but harmlessly wrong for the would-be mugger. Getting to see that bit in all its glory always cracks Shiro up. It cracks Curtis up too--and then he _snorts_ and that just sets Shiro off again. He snuggles in against Curtis’ shoulder, and Curtis gives him a little squeeze and kisses his forehead.

 

They both love this movie but they’ve seen it a hundred times. They can quote every line. And so it really doesn’t matter if they take their attention off it for a few minutes now and then. There’s nothing too hot and heavy--it might be dark, but they’re still in public. And Shiro might be starting to have some hot and heavy _thoughts_ but they’re not quite to the point of acting on them, not even in private, and besides that he has some concerns about his scars that he’s not sure how to bring up yet. So for now, there are some guidelines they follow. Hands outside of clothes. No kissing below the neck. No petting between the belt and about mid-thigh. But even with those restrictions in place, they manage to find plenty of ways to keep each other entertained during the slow parts of the movie.

 

By the last few scenes of the movie, they’ve started testing the boundaries of those restrictions a little. Shiro’s fingertips sneak under the collar of Curtis’ shirt. The tip of Curtis’ tongue slips between his lips in response, retreats, and then returns, and Shiro can’t help but laugh a little as he lets it in.

 

He’s a little tempted to stay through the credits, just to see if they might loosen those boundaries a little more before the lights come back up.

 

* * *

 

They’re not quite ready to go back to the dorm after that. Not quite ready for this to be over, even just for tonight.

 

They drive around for a while looking for something else to do--they both enjoy dancing, but don’t feel like dealing with the noise and crowds that go with that. And maybe some other time they’ll hit the hoverkart track or something, but not tonight. Tonight they just want a little peace and quiet, a little time to themselves.

 

They end up at the big park, the one with the nice walking trail and the sculpture garden. Sometimes there are concerts out here in the evenings, or farmer’s markets, or other events but tonight it’s quiet. There aren’t even that many people on the walking trail, couples or otherwise.

 

It’s a crisp January night. The jackets they both brought are enough to keep them warm, but the chill is as good an excuse as any to huddle in close while they walk. It feels nice, walking along like this and pointing out interesting things along the trail, Curtis’ arm around his shoulders and his around Curtis’ waist, neither of them in a hurry to go anywhere or do anything, neither of them with anything more urgent to do than enjoy each others’ company for one quiet evening.

 

Shiro still isn’t quite used to that.

 

He’s still not used to the idea that the war really _is_ over and there’s not something even worse than Honerva lurking out there. He’s still not used to actually being able to leave his work at work, at least most of the time. And sometimes Curtis still has to gently remind him that it’s okay to step back and breathe for a minute if he needs to.

 

Shiro can’t forget the things that keep him up at night. He can’t forget what happened to him, or what saving the universe cost them, or the work that’s still to be done now that the war is over. Sometimes it’s hard to even let them go for a little while and focus on the present.

 

But tonight, at least, it’s a little easier.

 

* * *

 

They could part ways at the elevator again, but instead Shiro decides he’s not quite ready for this to be over. He offers to walk Curtis to his room, and Curtis accepts. Shiro feels a little silly doing that--for one thing, there’s nothing but half a hallway length and a quick elevator ride between their two rooms. For another, he knows perfectly well that they’re both adults and there is literally nothing stopping them from spending the night together. And it’s not like they haven’t done _that_ yet--most nights Shiro manages to drag himself off Curtis’ couch long enough to go back to his room, or Curtis manages to get off Shiro’s couch long enough to go back to his. But there are nights when getting up just isn’t worth the effort and they end up passed out on the couch together.

 

For tonight, it just seems like it’ll be fun to go through the first-date motions of kissing Curtis goodnight and saving the rest for another time.

 

“Did you have a good time?” Curtis asks him as they come to his door.

 

Shiro wraps his arms around Curtis’ waist and stretches up to kiss him. “Mmm-hm. How about you?”

 

“I had a _great_ time.” Curtis grins and kisses him back. There’s that tongue again, just a little light curious flick between Shiro’s lips and away again. Just enough to make him want a little more of it. “Hey... since we’re both off tomorrow, you want to go do some laundry?”

 

Shiro can’t help laughing at that. “Yeah, that sounds like a hot date.”

 

“There’s a joke about getting into each others’ pants in there somewhere,” Curtis says, mischief sparkling in his eyes, and Shiro just laughs harder. “But I think I’ll just leave it at that for now.”

 

They stay there for a while, standing outside Curtis’ door in each others’ arms. Neither of them is quite ready to let go and Shiro can feel something hanging in the space between them. Something they haven’t said yet, at least not out loud. He can tell Curtis senses it too. He can feel it in the way Curtis is holding him, in the warm breath ruffling his hair, in his heartbeat.

 

In the end, Curtis finally says it first.

 

“I love you,” he whispers into the side of Shiro’s head, and it feels like a release.

 

“Love you too,” Shiro whispers back. It’s going to be even harder to pull away now, to leave this with a “to be continued” tacked onto it, but... somehow, Shiro thinks that’s just going to make the next time that much sweeter.

 

Curtis leans down to kiss him one more time; it’s slow and soft and somehow it still threatens to turn Shiro’s legs to jelly. “See you tomorrow?” Curtis whispers, and Shiro nods.

 

“You bet.” He steals one more quick kiss and reluctantly steps back and lets Curtis go. “‘Night, Curtis.”

 

Curtis flashes him a smile and opens his door. “‘Night, Takashi,” he replies, and then he slips into his room.

 

Shiro stands there for a minute, not really caring about how this would look to anyone who caught him standing here in the hall outside Curtis’ closed door in a fog of dazed contentment. His eyes are a little unfocused and he’s sure he’s got a goofy grin on his face and he does not care one bit.

 

Curtis called him _Takashi._

 

Another first.

 

Then he shakes it off and heads for the elevator.

 

He steps back into his room, kicks off his shoes, strips off his nice date clothes and puts them in the laundry basket, and changes into his pajama pants and tank top. Then he turns off the lights and climbs into bed. He takes out his phone and checks on his succulents and koi and cats, then he turns it off and stows it in the nightstand drawer.

 

He knows he should get some sleep--he’s off duty tomorrow, it’s a rare opportunity to catch up on that. But instead, he lays there in the dark replaying the whole evening in his head, start to finish, and looking forward to doing it again.


End file.
